Nutrition - Eat Your Way To Better Health With Kerry Paul and Bernadette Bohan

Friday, 5 September 2008

We speak to Kerry Paul and Bernadette Bohan to find out how to eat your way to better health. Kerry will be talking about the many health benefits of Manuka honey and Bernadette will be talking about her "Total approach to health"

The Rude Health exhibition is taking place in the RDS this Saturday September 6th and Sunday September 7th, which both of our guests are speakers at.

At the age of thirty three she was diagnosed with lymph cancer and six years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Bernadette discovered nutrition played a big part in her health and recovery with cancer.

Seven years after Bernadette won her first battle against cancer, she became pregnant with a child she longed for. Although her doctor warned that carrying the baby could cause a recurrence of the disease, she chose to keep the child. Five years after the birth of her daughter, cancer again attacked her body.

Bernadette made another powerful choice. She realized that to fight the cancer and stay healthy through the traditional treatments, she had to battle on her own terms. By searching out a huge variety of information about diet and health, Bernadette created her own alternative prescriptions for wellness based on four simple points.

Bernadette is the author of "The Choice" a memoir that has now sold over 42,000 copies. It's the story of a mother who tried to reshape her life after she was faced with cancer for the second time. In her second book "The Choice The Programme" she concentrates on the foods we can eat and not on the foods we can't.

Kerry Paul:
During the 1930's Kerry Paul's uncle Don Paul produced clover honey for retail shops in the central Waikato, New Zealand's famous dairying region. There were still large tracts of manuka bush in the Waikato and bee-keepers produced manuka honey even though it was not in demand. Manuka honey was given away to dairy farmers who fed it to their cows. Overtime dairy farmers noticed those cows fed manuka honey did not suffer from the same diseases that affected other cows.

However it was not until the early 1990's did the University of Waikato show manuka honey had reliable anti-bacterial activity. All honeys have a level of anti-bacterial activity due to the presence of hydrogen peroxide. But this disappears very quickly when the honey is subjected to heat, light or enzymes in body fluids. Manuka honey however has non hydrogen peroxide anti-bacterial activity which makes it unique among honeys and other foods.

Kerry has been General Manager Strategic Planning in New Zealand's dairy and meat industries. After a period of commercialising a number of biotechnology start-up companies, Kerry has now taken up the challenge of scientifically demonstrating the efficacy of New Zealand bee products. His knowledge of Manuka honey and it's health benefits is very extensive. He has personally been involved with setting up trials using MGO Manuka in hospitals in Sweden, Norway and in the USA for wound healing and has led the move in New Zealand to producing Manuka honey with a more science based rating system that is MGO.

Bernadette will be talking about her total approach to health, and today she will be focusing on two major factors.
Emotional factors
When Bernadette has been talking at seminars she has found that emotional factors play a huge part in people's ability to change successfully. People meet resistance from their families and friends, and become disillusioned with their new regime.
Her advice is to Make One Change. By changing one small thing in your life you gather momentum, and when you begin seeing the results it spurs you on to make more changes. Also, if you fall off the wagon it makes it easier and less intimidating to start again.
Immune system
We don't realise how important our immune systems are. They are nature's self healing mechanism, our bodies way of fighting illness and keeping us healthy. Bernadette calls the immune system "Our forgotten hero", as we sometimes forget about it, and think that healing is all external. We need to support our immune system and give it proper food and nourishment
This will lead Bernadette into talking about her four point plan. The elements of her four point plan are:
Juicing
This was a wonderful first change to make, it's easy, delicious and you will immediately feel the benefits. It enables you to consume large quantities of raw fruits and vegetables. These juices are very easily assimilated by the body and provide large amounts of nutrients. Juicing has become very trendy with juice bars popping up everywhere, but these juices have been used as a way of healing in health centers from many years. Children love the taste of these fresh juices and it a great way to get more raw veggies into them. It takes about five minutes to make a juice and five minutes to clean up after. So it is not that time-consuming and certainly worth the benefits and the delicious taste.

Clean Water
There has been an explosion in the past few years in drinking more water, and while this is a very positive move we do need to make sure the water we drink is clean. Sufficient water keeps us healthy, cleanses our system internally and gives our skin a gorgeous glow. Lack of sufficient water on the other hand can cause premature ageing, and a host of the illnesses from asthma and ulcers to high blood pressure and arthritis. But first, think before you drink, we need to clean the water coming into our homes and it's an easy and effective step to take. The good news is that there are two very effective water systems available. Due to the purity of the water produced by both these systems, they are used within medical and pharmaceutical laboratories and many of the health centers throughout the world, which I think it's a pretty good recommendation. Check the resources section at the end of the book for ideas on where to find a system to suit you. Your body will immediately feel the benefits.

Powerful Foods:
Good food is so enjoyable and eating healthily is not living on a leaf of lettuces and a stick of carrot. In experience most people find that any changes to the food they eat are the most challenging changes. "I have found it best to find alternatives and add them to the diet before eliminating those foods you are already used to. In this section I will tell you about some powerful foods that help us fight disease. The good news is that they are very easily added to soups, stews and cereals, sandwiches, salads, and juices. They can be slipped unobtrusively into family meals; I have become very sneaky with my children."
Safe Personal Care
The cosmetic industry spends billions of dollars each year persuading us that we need their products .We assume these products are safe, yet there are many harmful chemicals used in day-to-day products like toothpaste shampoo, deodorant, moisturisers, baby wipes, body lotions and makeup. There are many alternatives and once you know what to look out for, it's so easy.

Kerry Paul:
-For the last 15 years we have known that Manuka honey is special, but we haven't known why.
-In January this year Professor Thomas Henle from the University of Dresden in Germany identified Methylglyoxal as the active compound in Manuka honey.
- Following the discovery, Kerry Paul worked with researchers to implement a new measurement scale called MGO manuka honey which offers consumers a simple, yet reliable way to judge antibacterial properties by indicating the exact methylglyoxal content of the manuka honey.
-Kerry started working with Manuka Honey about five years ago after hearing a large number of people claiming that it had healing properties.
The main uses of Manuka Honey are:
-For gastro-intestinal problems (stomach ulcers etc)
-Wound healing properties, for skin ulcers, wounds, boils etc
-Helps burns and sores heal faster
-To combat infections and MRSA (see below)
MRSA:
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) also branded as the hospital 'super bug', is a strain of bacteria that is resistant to some of the most powerful antibiotics currently available. It flourishes in hospitals where patients are in close proximity and are likely to have weakened defences by ill health.
A recent survey by the Irish Patients Association showed that in 2003, Ireland recorded the highest number of MRSA cases in Europe.

In that year, Ireland recorded 119 cases per million in 2003 - two-and-a-half times higher than the next worst hit country, Portugal, with 46 cases per million (Irishhealth.com).
Professor Peter Molan MBE tested the effectiveness of Manuka Honey strips on patients in a New Zealand Hospital that was plagued with MRSA. In the two years of its use on patients with open wounds, the number of cases of cross-infection diminished dramatically.

Once the Manuka Honey strip has been applied, the infected wound quickly becomes sterile (usually within a week). Also honey acts as a barrier, preventing wounds from becoming infected thus preventing cross-infection.
What is MGOT Manuka Honey?
Dietary methylglyoxal is responsible for the reliable anti-bacterial activity only found in some manuka honey. Measurement of methylglyoxal content is the only true standard for determining the health benefits for which manuka honey has become famous.
Manuka Health measures methylglyoxal content based on standards developed by University of Dresden (Germany), who discovered this active compound in manuka honey. For example, MGOT100 Manuka Honey has been tested and is certified to contain at least 100mg/kg of dietary methylglyoxal, the minimum required for health benefits. REF:www.mgomanuka.com

Why does MGOT Manuka protect consumers?
University of Dresden evaluated 45 commercial honey brands and found they contained methylglyoxal concentrations from 1 to 8 mg/kg whereas manuka honey ranged from 30 to over 700 mg/kg. This difference is what makes manuka honey unique as a reliable health product over all other honeys and in fact any food or beverage.
Methylglyoxal has been reported in fermented foods such as milk products as well as beer and wine, with concentrations ranging from 3 to 11mg/kg. Furthermore, methylglyoxal is known to form during coffee roasting in amounts 23 to 47 mg/kg.
Not all manuka honeys are the same and now consumers can distinguish between those manuka honeys with genuine health-giving properties and those claiming to have these properties but really only being a good table honey. Methylglyoxal content becomes the true standard for consumers to distinguish between genuine and fake products. Manuka honey should have at least, a methylglyoxal content of 100mg/kg to be an effective anti-bacterial agent against harmful pathogens.

REF: www.mgomanuka.com

What can MGOT Manuka Honey be used for?
Application areas for use of high MGOT manuka honey continues to expand as consumer resistance to anti-biotics increases. Currently high MGOT Manuka honey is used as a functional food or dietary supplement. With the discovery of methylglyoxal the honey is now becoming increasingly accepted by medical professionals for applications in treating gastro-intestinal disorders, wide range of serious wounds, skin, lung, oral and opthalmological diseases.

REF: www.mgomanuka.com

See below table to help you find which MGO strength you need:
MGOTM Manuka Health Honey MGO content Good for .
MGOT100
100mg/kg General health & well-being, immune support, colds/sore throats
MGOT250
250mg/kg More persistent coughs, digestive upsets
MGOT400
400mg/kg Stomach ulcers, infected wounds
MGOT550
550mg/kg Leg ulcers, long-lasting infections